米歇爾·奧巴馬在北京大學(xué)演講英語(4)
米歇爾·奧巴馬在北京大學(xué)演講英語
And today, students from all kinds of backgrounds are studying here in China.Take the example of Royale Nicholson from Cleveland,Ohiowho attends New York University’s program inShanghai.
Like me, Royale is a first generation college student…and her mother worked two fulltime jobs while her father worked nights to support their family.
Of her experience inShanghai, she said, “This city oozes persistence and inspires me to accomplish all that I can.”
And then there’s Philmon Haile from the University of Washington whose family came to theU.S. as refugee from Eritrea when he was a child.
Of his experience studying inChina, he said, “study abroad is a powerful vehicle for people-to-people exchange as we move into a new era of citizen diplomacy.”
“a new era of citizen diplomacy ”- I couldn’t have said it better myself, because that’s really what I’m talking about...I’m talking about ordinary citizen reaching out to the world.
And as I always tell young people back in America, you don’t need to get on a plane to by a citizen diplomacy.
I tell them that if you have an internet in your home, school, or library, within seconds, you can be transported anywhere in the world and meet people on every continent.
That’s why I’m posting a daily travel blog with videos and photos of my experiences in china - because I want young people in America to be part of this visit.
That’s really the power of technology - how it can open up the entire world and expose us to ideas and innovations we never could have imagined.
And that’s why it is so important for information and ideas to flow freely over the internet and through the media.
Because that’s how we discover the truth...that’s how we learn what’s really happening in our communities, our country and our world.
And that’s how we decide which values and ideas we think are best - by questioning and debating them vigorously…by listening to all sides of every argument...and by judging for ourselves.
And believe me, I know this can be a messy and frustrating process.
My husband and I are on the receiving and of plenty of questioning and criticizing from our media and our fellow citizens...and it’s not always easy...but we wouldn’t trade it for anything in the world.
Because time and again, we have seen that countries are stronger and more prosperous when the voices and opinions of all their citizens can be heard.
And as my husband said, we respect the uniqueness of other cultures and societies.
But when it comes to expressing yourself freely, and worshipping as your choose, and having open access to information – we believe those are universal rights that are the birthright of every person on this planet.
今天，來自不同背景的學(xué)生正在中國學(xué)習(xí)。以來自俄亥俄州克利夫蘭的羅亞爾·尼克爾森(Royale Nicholson)為例，她參加了紐約大學(xué)在上海的項(xiàng)目。像我一樣，羅亞爾是家里的第一代大學(xué)生。她母親做兩份全職工作，而她父親晚上工作以維持他們的家庭。談到她在上海的經(jīng)歷時(shí)，她說：“這座城市充滿韌性，它激勵(lì)我完成所有我能做的事。”
還有來自華盛頓大學(xué)的費(fèi)爾蒙·黑爾(Philmon Haile)，他還是孩子的時(shí)候，他的家人作為厄立特里亞難民來到了美國。談到他在中國學(xué)習(xí)的經(jīng)歷時(shí)，他說：“在我們進(jìn)入公民外交的新時(shí)代之際，留學(xué)是人民間交流的一種強(qiáng)大工具。”
“一個(gè)公民外交的新時(shí)代”一一我想不出比這更好的說法了，因?yàn)檫@正是我正在談的，那就是普通公民走向世界。
正如我經(jīng)常對(duì)美國年輕認(rèn)說的那樣，你不需要登上飛機(jī)才能成為公民外交官。
我告訴他們，如果你在家里、學(xué)?；蛘邎D書館能上網(wǎng)，只要幾秒鐘，你就可以被帶到世界任何地方，遇見來自每個(gè)大陸的人。
這就是為什么我每天都要發(fā)一篇旅行博文，里面有我這次中國之行的視頻和照片―因?yàn)槲蚁Ｍ绹哪贻p人能成為這次訪問的一部分。
這確實(shí)是技術(shù)的力量——它打開整個(gè)世界，讓我們接觸到以前根本難以想象的思想和創(chuàng)新。這也是為什么信息和思想在互聯(lián)網(wǎng)上、并通過媒體自由流動(dòng)是如此重要。
因?yàn)槟鞘俏覀儼l(fā)現(xiàn)真理的途徑，那使我們得以了解我們的社群、我們的國家和我們的世界到底在發(fā)生著什么。
那也是我們何以決定哪些價(jià)值觀和思想是最好的―通過有力地對(duì)它們提出疑問，進(jìn)行辯論，傾聽各方觀點(diǎn)，并做出自己的判斷。
相信我，我知道這是一個(gè)令人困惑而沮喪的過程。有大量來自我們媒體和公民的質(zhì)疑和批評(píng)，而我丈夫和我位于接收端。這并非易事，但我們認(rèn)為它的重要無可取代。
因?yàn)槲覀円淮斡忠淮蔚乜吹?，?dāng)所有公民的聲音和觀點(diǎn)都能得到傾聽之時(shí)，國家會(huì)變得更加強(qiáng)大和繁榮。
正像我的丈夫曾說過的，我們尊重其他文化和社劊的獨(dú)特性。然而，就自由的表達(dá)自我、選擇自己所崇拜的東西，以及享有信息公開而言―我們相信那是地球上每個(gè)人與生俱來的權(quán)利。
“美國面孔”，“中國面孔”